The Aplington-Parkersburg basketball teams will host South Hardin in their final games of 2024 Thursday. It’ll be the first night of back-to-back games for the Tigers.
The Falcon boys (6-0, 3-0 NICL-C) will look to finish the calendar year strong and enter the break undefeated.
“I think we have a lot of potential to continue to grow,” Head Coach Aaron Thomas says. “I don’t worry about us, you know, peaking too early, just with our inexperience and new guys playing together. And we’ll keep working and get ourselves ready. And we know every game is going to be tough. Hopefully we can close out here in 2024, undefeated, we have a very physical South Hardin team coming in. So we’re going to have to match their physicalness and be able to play and move the ball to get open shots. Because it’ll be tough to just drive it through them or at them.”
The Falcons took a step in the right direction in their three-point shooting, hitting 44 percent in Tuesday’s win over Dike-New Hartford.
South Hardin (3-2, 1-2 NICL-W) started 3-0, but has lost consecutive games to Grundy Center and Gladbrook-Reinbeck. With five players who score nine or more points per game, Head Coach John Phillips says this could be a big season.
“Discipline and consistency, I think on both ends of the ball,” Phillips says. “I think we have a great team and a great opportunity to do something really special this year. And I think if we have discipline, knowing our sets, knowing exactly what we’re supposed to do, and then just making it consistent. Don’t have those lapses when other teams go on runs, make sure we’re being consistent, defending really well, no easy buckets, knowing who we’re guarding, boxing out, doing the simple things, all the fundamentals. If we do that, we will have a special year.”
Jaxson Drury leads with 13.5 points per game, and the team has been remarkably crisp with only six turnovers per game.
The Falcon girls (5-2, 2-1 NICL-C) will look to close 2024 strong, and they enter with the momentum of Tuesday’s 62-28 win over Dike-New Hartford, where Kolbie Wangsness recorded a career-best 22 points.
The South Hardin girls (2-4, 1-2 NICL-W) will look to get back on track after being held to 31 and 29 points in losses to Grundy Center and #15 (1A) Gladbrook-Reinbeck in the last two games. Alli Sheldahl leads with 14 points per game.
Action will begin at 6:15 p.m.
